Asio chief defied Gough Whitlam's order to cut ties with the CIA in 1974

Submitted by Paul Daley on Fri, 16/10/2015 - 6:58am

Latest volume of Asio’s official history sheds light on the lowest point of US-Australian relations in the turbulent years of the Whitlam government

The chief of Australia’s domestic spy agency, Asio, defied a direct order from then Labor prime minister Gough Whitlam in 1974 to sever all ties with America’s Central Intelligence Agency.

Whitlam – hostile to US spy bases in Australia and angy with the CIA’s undermining of leftwing administrations, including Chile’s Allende government in 1973 – effectively forced the Washington-Canberra intelligence relationship underground until the dismissal of his government in late 1975.